Asia: Toward Economic Cooperation

A significant step toward the economic integration of Asia was taken in Tokyo last Thursday, as the Asian Development Bank held its inaugural meeting. More than 500 delegates from 32 countries and nine international agen cies, including financial experts, ranking world bankers and top-level govern ment officials such as U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Fowler, unanimously elected Japan's Takeshi Watanabe, 60, president for a five-year term. At the same time, they also agreed to admit Indonesia and Switzerland as the bank's 31st and 32nd members.

Watanabe, a former executive director of the World Bank and the Inter national Monetary...

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